Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England | Unofficial Royalty Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England by Susan Flantzer Catherine of Braganza, wife of King Charles II of England; Photo Credit – Wikipedia Catherine of Braganza (Catarina Henriqueta) was born on November 25, 1638 at the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa in Vila Viçosa, Portugal. Her parents were João, 8th Duke of Braganza and Luisa de Guzmán . When Catherine was two years old, her father became King João IV of Portugal when the Portuguese Restoration War ended the sixty-year rule of Portugal by the Spanish Habsburgs. Two of Catherine’s brothers became Kings of Portugal: Afonso VI and Pedro II . The accession of Catherine’s father as King of Portugal brought a great change in the family’s status and Catherine became a potential royal bride for John of Austria (illegitimate son of King Philip IV of Spain), François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort (illegitimate grandson of King Henry IV of France and cousin to King Louis XIV of France), King Louis XIV of France, and King Charles II of England.

She had first been suggested as a bride for King Charles II of England in 1645 during the reign of Charles’ father King Charles I of England and again in 1660 when the monarchy was restored in England. Already there were rumors of Catherine’s inability to have children, but the newly restored King Charles II was eager to have the £300,000 dowry. The marriage contract was signed on June 23, 1661. Catherine set sail for England in April of 1662 and landed at Portsmouth, England on May 13, 1662. On May 21, 1662, King Charles II and Catherine were married in Portsmouth in two ceremonies, a private Catholic one and a public Anglican one. Catherine’s Roman Catholicism made her an unpopular queen. Despite fathering at least 16 illegitimate children with his mistresses, Charles had no children with Catherine. It is thought that Catherine did have at least three miscarriages. Despite having many mistresses, Charles insisted that Catherine be treated with respect, and sided with her over his mistresses when he felt she was not receiving the respect she was due.

After an initial shock at being presented to Charles’ mistress right after her marriage, Catherine maintained a dignified attitude towards her husband’s mistresses and showed many acts of kindness to his illegitimate children. When it became apparent that Catherine would not produce an heir to the throne, it was suggested that Charles divorce his wife and marry a Protestant princess. Charles refused the suggestion. On February 2, 1685, King Charles II suffered an apparent stroke and died four days later. While Charles was dying, Catherine was ill and sent a message begging his forgiveness for being unable to come to him. Charles replied to her, “Alas, poor woman, it is I who should be begging forgiveness.” After the death of King Charles II and the accession of Charles’ brother King James II, Catherine continued to live at Somerset House in London. Catherine was present at the 1688 birth of King James II’s son James Francis Edward, Prince of Wales and was his godmother. When rumors began to spread that he was an impostor baby, and had been smuggled into the royal birth chamber in a warming pan, Catherine was one of the witnesses giving evidence of his legitimacy.

Catherine remained in England after King James II was overthrown in 1688 by the Glorious Revolution and his daughter and her husband and first cousin took the throne as King William III and Queen Mary II. However, Catherine found that her position with the new monarchs deteriorated and she decided to return to Portugal in 1693. After living in the homes of noblemen in Lisbon, Portugal for a period of time, Catherine decided to build her own palace, the Palace of Bemposta . Catherine was an important female figure to her nephew, the future King João V of Portugal, after his mother died. When brother, King Pedro II, grew tired of government, Catherine served as his regent. Catherine died at her Palace of Bemposta in Lisbon, Portugal on December 31, 1705 at the age of 67. She was originally buried at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, Portugal. On September 29, 1855, Catherine’s remains along with the remains of other family members were re-interred at the Royal Pantheon of the House of Braganza in the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora .

Tomb of Catherine of Braganza; Photo source: Learn more about royalty, past and present here and share your thoughts on our forums . Queen Catherine of Baganza Queen Catherine of Braganza Queen Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705) King Charles II of England married Catherine, Infanta of Portugal, by proxy in Lisbon, on 23rd April 1662. The marriage treaty between the royal families included a dowry of sugar, plate and jewels to the value of 400,000 crowns, bills of exchange to double that amount, the rights to free trade with Brazil and the East Indies, and the cessions of Bombay and Tangiers. It was the troubled state of Tangiers, under constant threat from the Moors that led to the creation of the 2nd Regiment of Foot later the Queen's Royal (West Surrey) Regiment.

This force was to protect Tangiers’ strategic position at the entry to the Mediterranean for the next two decades and on its return to England, Charles II renamed it, “our dearest consort, the Queen’s Regiment.” When the marriage plans were under discussion, Charles II was persuaded that the Portuguese princess would make a tolerable wife when he was shown a portrait brought over by the Portuguese ambassador. A Londoner reported on 11th May 1661 the “The picture of out intended Queen is at Whitehall; by that and the report of those that have seen her she is a lovely little woman.” Standing before it Charles is said to have remarked “That person cannot be unhandsome”. His hesitancy was understandable, for the portrait in fact shows a doll like young lady wearing a stiff Portuguese court dress with a huge farthingale. Her hair is brushed horizontally across her forehead, but allowed otherwise to ripple loose to her shoulders, signifying her virginal marriageable state. The original was painted by Dirck Stoop, a Dutchman working at the court in Lisbon. On the wedding day in Lisbon a version of this portrait together with a full length of King Charles, was carried through the streets as part of the public celebration.

Apart from the solemn Catholic matrimonial mass in the great Manueline Abbey of St, Jerome at Belem on the river Tagus, there was a stately procession passing under triumphal arches, followed by a bullfight and later an aquatic carnival with fireworks. A colourful record of the proceedings is to be found in a heroic poem called Iter Lusitania: or the Portugal Voyage which celebrated the wedding and the Queen’s journey from Portugal to England. This publication was illustrated with half a dozen engravings by an eyewitness, the same Dirck Stoop, who had a special allegiance to the Infanta and came to England in her retinue in 1662. On 13th May she landed at Portsmouth. A few days later she was joined by the King and their marriage was given Protestant validity by the Bishop of London in a private service. The Queen wore a rose coloured dress with blue love knots, which were later snipped off and handed round to all present.

The King was not displeased with his new bride and wrote shortly afterwards to Minette, his sister: “Her face is not so exactly as to be called a beauty, though her eyes are excellent good, and nothing in her face that in the least degree can disgust one. On the contrary, she hath as much agreeableness in her looks as I ever saw, and if I have any skill in physiognomy, which I think I have, she must be as good a woman as ever was born. You will wonder to see how well we are acquainted already; in a word, I think myself very happy, for I am confident our two humours will agree very well together.” Queen Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705) A royal marriage at this time was merely a political match, although they were expected to produce an heir. In this she signally failed, but the King remained true to her, in the formal sense of honouring her as his wife, despite her childlessness and throughout the time she was accused of sedition during the succession crisis and the Popish Plot of 1678 – 1681.

Very soon after arriving in England the Queen adopted English dress and arranged her hair in fashionable wired bunches of ringlets on either side of her face. It was like this that Samuel Cooper painted her, in an unfinished miniature which is one of the prized possessions of Her Majesty the Queen today. Charles II acquired it for the Royal Collection after the artist’s death. A royal portrait like this, made from the life, from which he might be required to make many copies, would be kept by Cooper in his studio for the purpose of reproduction. The spontaneity of a life sitting is clearly visible. With the fervour of the restoration, demand for paintings of Charles outstripped all expectations. The affable King’s personal popularity was high, and his Queen, despite her Catholicism, basked in reflected glory. They were both painted by Peter Lely, but the head and shoulders of the Queen, which normally hangs in the Officers Mess, is after an original by a Dutchman called Pieter Borsselaer who came to this country in the early 1660s.

The larger of the Regiment’s pictures of the Queen, hanging at Regimental Headquarters, Canterbury over the stairs, is a composition usually ascribed to Jacob Huysmans, a Catholic painter from Antwerp. Both show her holding an orb, with a crown nearby. The complimentary inclusion of the regalia, ermine and crimson velvet makes them both formal state portraits, but the fact was, that the Queen was never crowned. Charles had been crowned well before her arrival, in order to avoid the difficulty of crowning a Catholic. The portraits known definitely to have been painted by Huysmans are rather different. Samuel Pepys visited his studio on 26th August 1664 and saw the artist working on two portraits at once: “The Queene is drawn in one like a shepherdess – in the other like St. Katharin, most like and most admirably.” Perhaps it was the Queen herself who chose less stately but more subtle types of portrait. Portrayal as a Saint, carrying a martyr’s palm, and kneeling on a broken wheel, reveals that she had dedicated her life to the devotion of her religion.

Her childhood had been spent in a remote convent, and upon her marriage she saw her duty in England to be protector of the Catholic faith. It had been one of the conditions of the marriage treaty that she would be allowed to practice her religion in England without interference, and throughout much of Charles II’s reign, her chapels at St. James’s and in Somerset House were the only places in London where Catholics could worship freely. The second very beautiful portrait of the Queen as a shepherdess can be seen today in the King’s dining room at Windsor Castle in an elaborate Grinling Gibbon’s frame. The mood of the painting would appear recreational; the ducks at her feet might reflect her interest in birds – she kept her own aviary, importing parrots and cockatoos from India. She wears silvery white, rose and blue, and a broad – brimmed hat pinned with a butterfly brooch. Her hair hangs long and loose. It was de rigueur at the time to be painted in this ‘timeless’ pastoral gear to avoid being quickly dated by changing fashions. But 17th century paintings often have hidden symbolism.

She also holds a crook and her left hand rests on a lamb with a fair-haired boy tipping flowers over its back. The lamb is associated with innocence, gentleness, patience and humility. It is also symbolic of Christ the shepherd, and with his sacrifice for mankind. Catherine had all the foregoing qualities, and she may have identified particularly with the Good Shepherd in her duties as leader of the Catholic faith in England. Why else is the boy showering the lamb with flowers, rather than herself? Queen Catherine of Braganza (1638-1705) She is shown seated out of doors, surrounded by birds and animals, in a later portrait painted about 1680 by Benedetto Gennari. This is the painting illustrated by Jock Haswell on p.15 of his book on the regiment: the painting itself hangs at Goodwood. Gennari was another Catholic, an Italian who came to England in the suite of Mary of Modena when she married James, Duke of York, the King’s brother. Further gentle symbolism is intended: nourishment is being given to the lamb of Faith, and the book would be a holy one.

The fountain, as a source of water, represented one’s spiritual life and salvation, and was often used as an attribute of the Virgin and the Immaculate Conception – the Queen’s hope of bearing a child was still evident. When Charles II died in 1685, Catherine, as Queen Dowager, had three years of openly practising her religion without fear while the Catholic James II was on the throne. After his exile in 1688, however, under William and Mary, all Catholic chapels were closed, Catherine’s household was drastically reduced, and she was hounded into meaner accommodation. For a number of years she felt it her duty to stay on and represent the Catholic faith in England, but finally the cross that she had born so bravely against the spiteful intolerance of Queen Mary, became too much, and she managed to get leave from Louis XIV to journey across France to her homeland, the only method of travel that she could afford. She died in Portugal after steering her own country, as Queen Regent, through some difficult shoals at the start of the eighteenth century. By then, to English Catholics, she had become something of a martyr.

It has been suggested that it was as her special symbol that the Paschal Lamb was adopted by the Regiment at this time. It was about this time that its officers began to be called “Kirke’s Lambs” and the Regiment would not have been averse. The army historian, John Childs, states that before its dissolution, the Tangiers garrison was periodically accused by Parliament of being a hotbed of popery. It would be the hidden Catholic significance of the Lamb combined with the flag of St. George of England that could convey the Regiment’s dual allegiance to Queen and to nation. The lamb is not an emblem of the Royal House of Braganza, which has seven towers in its crest. A tower can just be seen in the background of the painting of ‘Saint’ Catherine by Huysmans. The original of this portrait is now in the hands of a wine-growing family and kept at a Quinta or villa/farmhouse just south of the Tagus. It is a wry post-script to her story to discover that it is this saintly representation which is reproduced on the label of a delicious woody Vinho Branco called “Catarina”.

Series of amalgamation is now part of The Princess of Wale’s Royal Regiment (Queen’s and Royal Hampshires). The Queen’s Royal Regiment through a Lady. Here's to Queen Catherine, Who Gave Queens a Name - NYTimes.com Here's to Queen Catherine, Who Gave Queens a Name By NADINE BROZAN Published: October 11, 1990 For admirers of royalty, Queens has never offered much. Donald Manes, the King of Queens? Prince Donald of Trump? No. It is time clearly to rescue Catherine of Braganza from the mists of history. Catherine, the 17th-century Portuguese Princess who introduced the fork and orange marmalade to the British Empire, also gave the borough its name. Now more than 300 years later, an effort is under way in Queens to honor the memory of Catherine, the wife of King Charles II of England, by erecting a statue of her, probably in Hunters Point. In a borough of remarkable ethnic diversity, the project has focused unusual attention on an underrepresented nationality: the Portuguese.

It has also given a little something to a politician: On Tuesday evening at a benefit put on in the Plaza Hotel by the Friends of Queen Catherine, Claire Shulman, the Borough President, was inducted into the Order of Vila Vicosa. The award was originated by King John IV, Catherine's father, and was presented to Mrs. Shulman by Dom Duarte, the 42-year-old Duke of Braganza, who would be King of Portugal if Portugal were still a monarchy. ''For a nice Jewish lady from Queens, this is very amusing,'' Mrs. Shulman remarked as she prepared for the festivities. The borough acquired its name in 1683 after England had wrested control of what was then called New Netherlands from the Dutch. The Duke of York and Albany was granted control over the area by his brother, King Charles II, and ''was wise enough to name Kings and Queens Counties for his brother and sister-in-law,'' said Henry Ludder, the Queens borough historian. Like most of her constituents, Mrs. Shulman had long been oblivious to Catherine's rightful place in her borough's identity.

She learned about the Queen, she said, through an exhibition in the Queens Museum honoring Catherine's 350th birthday in 1988 and through a trip to Portugal in May 1989. A Chance to Enhance Relations She came home determined to enhance relations between that Mediterranean country and her borough, despite the paucity of interested constituents. ''We have no Portuguese population here to speak of,'' noted Mrs. Shulman, who has been negotiating with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey for a site for the proposed statue. For the modern Duke of Braganza, a descendant of Queen Catherine's brother, King Alphonse VI, recognition of his forebear would distinguish Queens from the other boroughs. ''It is useful for the borough of Queens to have some history, something to give it a different personality,'' said the Duke, who lives in Sintra, Portugal. ''Everybody tends to confuse Queens with Brooklyn. This will set them apart.'' Though she brought to her marriage an immense dowry - $:500,000 in cash, the port cities of Tangier, Morocco, and Bombay and trade rights in all the Portuguese colonies - Queen Catherine was not always beloved in her adopted homeland.

An Underdog at Home She was barren, a condition said to have inspired plots against her. She was a Roman Catholic in a Protestant country. And she was accused of treachery and of trying to poison her husband, who had numerous mistresses and between 10 and 15 illegitimate children. He defended her against those in Parliament who sought to oust her. The Duke rallied to her defense yesterday, calling the accusations ''fabrications.'' ''She organized charity to help the poor,'' he said, ''and promoted an interesting kind of social security.'' Her presence in statue form would certainly bring a touch of authentic royalty to Queens. But on Tuesday evening, Mrs. Shulman had home-grown nobility in mind - Mr. Trump, born in a 23-room house in Jamaica Estates, Queens. As she handed the Duke a poster of Flushing Meadows Park, she said, ''Portugal has His Royal Highness, the Duke of Braganza, and Queens has its prince, too - Donald Trump.'' Photos: Catherine of Braganza, the 17th-century Portuguese Princess for whom the Borough of Queens is named.

(The Bettmann Archive); Borough President Claire Shulman as she was honored by the Friends of Queen Catherine on Tuesday night. (Alan Zale for The New York Times) Catherine of Braganza, Queen of Britain, wife of Charles I… | Flickr Lisby By: Lisby Catherine of Braganza, Queen of Britain, wife of Charles II Catherine of Braganza (Catarina de Bragança, in Portuguese) (25 November 1638 – 31 December 1705) was a Portuguese Infanta and the queen consort of Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Infanta Catarina of Portugal (or of Braganza) was born in Vila Viçosa as the second surviving daughter of John IV of Portugal (at the time Duke of Braganza) and his wife, Luisa de Guzmán, a daughter of the duke of Medina-Sidonia. Through her mother, Catherine was a 3rd great granddaughter of Saint Francis Borgia. Although she was raised in a convent, Catherine's upbringing and education were closely supervised by her mother.

Following the restoration of a Portuguese Royal House, and her father's accession to the throne on 1 December 1640, she was proposed as a bride for John of Austria, Francois de Vendome, duc de Beaufort, Louis XIV and Charles II. She was seen as a useful conduit for contracting an alliance between Portugal and England, after the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659 in which Portugal was arguably abandoned by France. Upon Charles's restoration to the English throne in 1660, Catherine's mother reopened negotiations with his counsellors, and a marriage treaty was signed 23 June 1661. She was married by proxy in Lisbon on 23 April 1662. After arriving in Portsmouth on 14 May 1662, the couple were married in two more ceremonies – a Catholic one conducted in secret, followed by a public Anglican service – on 21 May. Catherine married late for a woman of her era, at 23. Her large dowry brought the port cities of Tangier and Bombay to British control.

The former had only a transitory significance, but the latter had a major lasting influence on the development of the British Empire and the History of India, as the British would develop Bombay - which had only 10,000 inhabitants under the Portuguese - into a major centre of commerce. At the time, she was not a particularly popular choice of queen, being Roman Catholic, and her religion prevented her from being crowned, as Roman Catholics were forbidden to take part in Anglican services. She initially faced hardships due to the language barrier, the king's infidelities and the political conflicts between Roman Catholics and Anglicans. Over time, her quiet decorum, loyalty and genuine affection for Charles changed the public's perception of her. Catherine became pregnant and miscarried at least twice, and during a severe illness in 1663, she thought, for a time, she had given birth. Charles comforted her by telling her she had indeed given birth to two sons and a daughter. Her position was a difficult one, as Charles continued to have children by his many mistresses, but insisted she be treated with respect, and sided with her over his mistresses when he felt she was not receiving the respect she was due.

Throughout his reign, he firmly dismissed the idea of divorcing Catherine, even when Parliament exerted pressure to beget or declare a Protestant successor. Though known to keep her faith a private matter, her religion and proximity to the king made her the target of anti-Catholic sentiment. In 1678, the murder of Sir Edmund Godfrey was ascribed to several of her servants. In November of the same year she was accused by Titus Oates, an instigator of the "Popish Plot", of being part of a conspiracy to poison the king, even though Charles himself disbelieved the entirety of the plot. Although both the evidence in her case and the Popish Plot were later discovered to be fabrications, the House of Commons voted unsuccessfully for an address calling for the Queen and her household to be banished from Whitehall. In 1679 she was defended against the allegations by the king himself. At Charles' final illness in 1685 she showed anxiety for his reconciliation with the Roman Catholic faith, and exhibited great grief at his death.

Later in the same year, she unsuccessfully interceded with James II for the life of James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, Charles's illegitimate son and leader of the Monmouth Rebellion. Catherine remained in England, living at Somerset House, through the reign of James and his deposition in the Glorious Revolution by William III and Mary II. Initially on good terms with William and Mary, her position deteriorated as the practice of her religion led to misunderstandings and increasing isolation. A bill was introduced to Parliament to limit the number of Catherine's Catholic servants, and she was warned not to agitate against the government. She finally returned to Portugal in March 1692. She supported the Treaty of Methuen in 1703 with England and acted as regent for her brother, Peter II, in 1701 and 1704-05. She died at the Bemposta Palace in Lisbon on 31 December 1705 and was buried at the Jerónimos Monastery, in Belém, Lisbon. Catherine introduced the custom of drinking tea in England, a custom that was already very popular among the Portuguese nobility at the time.

The tea had been imported to Portugal from the Portuguese possessions in Asia as well as through the trade Portuguese merchants maintained with China and Japan. Although some have claimed that Queens, a borough of New York City, was named after Catherine of Braganza, her name is not mentioned in the first 200 years of historical documents that have been preserved in the county archives. Because it was alleged that the Queen and her family had profited from the slave trade a recent effort to build a 10 m (33 ft)-tall statue in her honour in Queens was defeated by local African American, Irish-American and community groups.[1] A quarter-scale model survives at the site of Expo '98, in Lisbon, Portugal, facing Queens across the Atlantic. Done Catherine Of Braganza | queen of Great Britain | Britannica.com queen of Great Britain Alternative Title: Catherine of Bragança Catherine Of Braganza José Saramago Catherine Of Braganza, (born Nov. 25, 1638, Vila Viçosa, Port.—died Dec. 31, 1705, Lisbon ), Portuguese Roman Catholic wife of King Charles II of England (ruled 1660–85).

A pawn in diplomatic dealings and anti-papal intrigues, she was married to Charles as part of an important alliance between England and Portugal . Catherine’s father became King John IV of Portugal in 1640. Her marriage, which took place in May 1662, brought England valuable trading privileges and the port cities of Tangier (in Morocco) and Bombay . In return, England pledged to help Portugal maintain its independence from Spain. The young queen had little personal charm, and, despite her deep affection for Charles, he paid less attention to her than to his mistresses. When it became apparent that she would bear the King no children, opponents of his brother, James, duke of York, urged him to divorce her in the hope that Charles could then be induced to wed a Protestant. In 1678 they accused Catherine of scheming to poison the King and place his Roman Catholic brother James on the throne. But Charles, who never doubted his wife’s innocence, stood by her until she was cleared of the charges. Catherine helped convert Charles to the Roman Catholic Church shortly before he died in 1685, and in 1692 she returned to Portugal.

In 1704 she became regent of Portugal for her ailing brother, King Pedro II . Learn More in these related articles: Catherine of Braganza, Queen of England « The Freelance History Writer August 30, 2012 By Susan Abernethy in 17th Century , Early Modern History , Women's History Tags: Catherine of Braganza , King Afonso VI of Portugal , King Charles II of England , King Juan IV of Portugal , Louise de Keroulle , Portugal 20 Comments Portrait of Catherine of Braganza by Lely Amidst all the commotion created by King Charles II’s sex life and flamboyant mistresses, there actually was a Queen. She was Catherine of Braganza and she led a very interesting life in England as the King’s wife and later as ruler of her country of origin. Catarina Henriqueta de Braganza was born on November 25, 1638 in the Vila Vicosa in Alentego, Portugal. She was the eldest child of Joao, Duke of Braganza and his wife, Luisa Maria Francisca de Guzman .

Catherine had two siblings, Afonso and Pedro and grew up in a loving family. Catherine’s mother took an active interest in her children’s education. In 1640, Catherine’s father led a rebellion against Spain. During the rebellion he was offered the crown of Portugal and at his wife’s urging he agreed. The family moved to Lisbon and he was crowned King Joao IV. Portugal continued to fight for independence from Spain and received little cooperation from other European countries. However, one monarch acknowledged his elevation to the monarchy. The beleaguered King Charles I of England recognized his crown and King Joao would always remember this validation of his status. In 1644, King Joao finally prevailed against Spain. In an effort to reinforce his standing further, he sent his ambassador to England to negotiate a marriage agreement between King Charles I’s eldest son Charles and his daughter Catherine. Due to the raging Civil War in England, the negotiations never were carried out. Catherine lived for most of her childhood in a convent close to the royal palace where her mother could supervise her education. Her upbringing was said to be sheltered and made her a person of strong faith and devotion.

Exhausted with fighting the Spaniards, King Joao died in 1656 leaving his remarkable wife as regent for King Afonso. Luisa continued the fight against the dominance of Spain and enhanced Portugal’s independence through military and commercial endeavors. She soon was entertaining proposals for her daughter’s hand in marriage. She first contemplated a marriage with Louis XIV of France. When that didn’t materialize, she turned to England. A secret meeting was set up with her ambassador and King Charles II. The Portuguese offered Charles Tangier which could be used as a base for trade in the Mediterranean, Bombay, a gateway for trade with India, free trade with Brazil and the East Indies and an enormous amount of cash, £300,000. After a year of negotiations and overcoming doubts over him marrying a Catholic princess, Charles announced he would marry Catherine of Braganza before Parliament on May 8, 1661. King Charles II of England The marriage contract was signed on June 23, 1661 with England agreeing to provide military assistance to help protect Portugal from Spain in return for the massive dowry.

Catherine was given and income of £30,000 and the right to worship freely in England as a Catholic. Catherine was twenty-three and had become a serene and quiet young woman. She made the difficult journey to England, leaving her beloved home. The couple had two wedding ceremonies performed on May 21, 1662. The first was a Catholic service performed in secret and then a public Protestant service. She was never crowned as a Catholic was not allowed to participate in an Anglican ceremony. People were already criticizing Catherine’s appearance and her reserved nature. The fact that she didn’t speak English well made things difficult for her. But Charles seemed pleased with her appearance and her behavior and the early days of their marriage were satisfying. Catherine fell hopelessly in love with the King. But things did not go smoothly for long. Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine, Charles’ tempestuous mistress was pregnant with her second child by the King. Once their son was born, Barbara demanded to be named “Lady of the Bedchamber” to the new Queen. The King placed her name on the list and Catherine instantly crossed the name off.

Both parties dug in their heels but in the end, Catherine surrendered and Barbara was given the post. After the dust settled on the issue, Catherine was to treat all of Charles mistresses with calculated friendship, thus endearing herself even more with Charles. To make Catherine’s position even more difficult, she had trouble producing an heir. In 1663, she fell seriously ill and almost died. The King remained by her side, seemingly devoted to her. In her delirium she kept asking where her children were. Charles reassured her and his attentiveness seemed to restore her. When she recovered she couldn’t walk and was temporarily deaf but she eventually overcame these disabilities. In 1665, plague in London caused the court to move to Oxford and it is likely Catherine miscarried in February 1666. She suffered another miscarriage in 1668 and again in June 1669. This was to be her last pregnancy and both she and Charles were forced to accept they would never bear children together. Catherine’s existence was not all misery. As she grew older, she began to relax and enjoy what life at court offered. She loved to play cards, dance and organize masques.

She liked to picnic and fish in the country as well as practice archery. Like other women of the time she dressed in men’s clothing and may have instigated the practice of wearing shorter dresses to show off her pretty ankles. She is credited with starting the practice of drinking tea in England which noblemen had done in Portugal. She may have introduced the use of forks as well. She did not get involved with English politics but closely followed developments in Portugal. In 1665, she started building a religious house east of St. James which was completed in 1667 and became known as The Friary. In 1669, the King’s mother died and in 1671 Catherine moved into Somerset House. The rumors of divorce commenced but the King remained supportive of Catherine. In February 1673, Catherine fell seriously ill again. The government was calling for Charles to divorce Catherine or legitimize his eldest bastard son, James, Duke of Monmouth. Charles refused both requests. Barbara Castlemaine openly insulted the Queen in pubic so Charles made her a Duchess and basically bought her off.

But his new mistress, Louise de Kéroulle was even more repugnant to Catherine than Barbara had been. The stresses of her life threatened to kill her again with another serious illness in 1675. To make matters even more stressful, her religion was coming under attack and the Popish Plot of 1678 threatened her status directly. The government threatened Charles asking him to purge all Catholics from his household and they asked him to divorce her again in 1680. Charles was steadfast in his support of Catherine. He continued to treat her well until his death in 1685. Catherine fell into a deep depression but she was to enjoy religious freedom and the support of Charles’ Catholic brother King James II. When James was driven from the throne, his daughter and son-in-law took the throne as joint sovereigns, William and Mary. For some reason Mary didn’t like Catherine and in 1692, Catherine received permission to return to Portugal and she retired there. Her retirement did not last long. Her brother King Pedro II was incapacitated and her nephews were too young to rule and in 1704, she was named regent, just as her mother had been when her father died.

Catherine ruled over military campaigns and was highly effective in running the country. She was to govern to great acclaim until her death on December 31, 1705. She is buried in the Royal Pantheon of the Braganza Dynasty and her name is highly respected to this day in Portugal. Monastery of Sao Vicente de Fora where the Royal Pantheon of the Braganza Dynasty is and where Catherine is buried UK Tea & Infusions Association - Catherine of Braganza Catherine of Braganza Competitions Catherine of Braganza In this section, learn more about the influence of Charles II and his wife Catherine of Braganza on the British trend for drinking tea. Jump to: Influence of a Portuguese Princess In the contemporary era tea is so much associated with the British way of life that it can come as a surprise to learn that it owes much of its popularity here to a foreign princess. While it is not true to say that Catherine of Braganza, the queen-consort of Charles II of England, actually introduced tea to Britain, she certainly had much to do with it becoming a fashionable and widely drunk beverage.

Samuel Pepys first mentioned drinking tea in his diary entry for 25 September 1660 Portuguese traders imported it to their homeland from the East, and its high price and exoticism helped it to become very fashionable in aristocratic circles and at the royal court,where Catherine grew up. By the mid-seventeenth century, it was very popular there.Tea had also gained popularity in elite society in Holland, through Dutch trade in the East, and in neighbouring countries. But at this stage, Britain somewhat lagged behind. The famous English diarist Samuel Pepys first mentioned drinking tea in his diary entry for 25 September 1660. He wrote that he had been discussing foreign affairs with some friends, 'And afterwards did send for a Cupp of Tee (a China drink) of which I never drank before'. Since Pepys was a member of the wealthy and fashionable London set, his failure to mention tea earlier suggests that it was still unusual at this time. This was soon to change.

Just a few months before Pepys was writing, in May 1660, Charles II had been restored to the throne after the Commonwealth administration which had been set up by Oliver Cromwell in 1649 collapsed under the weight of its own unpopularity. But Charles II inherited many debts from that government, and soon ran up new ones of his own, and so was desperately short of cash. One solution to this was to marry a wealthy foreign princess and to demand with her a great deal of money or goods as a dowry. After some negotiation, it was agreed that he would marry Catherine, and that her father King John IV of Portugal would provide with her several ships full of luxury goods, some as gifts and some which could be sold to pay off Charles II's debts. These goods included a chest of tea, the favourite drink at the Portuguese court. the favourite drink at the Portuguese court Catherine arrived in Portsmouth on 13 May 1662. It had been a long and stormy crossing, and as soon as she arrived she asked for a cup of tea. So rare was it at this time that there was none available; the princess was offered a glass of ale instead.

Not surprisingly, this did not make her feel any better, and for a time she was forced by illness to retire to her bedchamber. Eventually though Catherine and Charles II were married, on 21 May 1662. Initially Catherine, a deeply pious Catholic who had been schooled in a convent, found it difficult to fit in at the bawdy and fun-loving English court. But over time she established herself, and as the pre-eminent woman in the kingdom became something of a trend-setter. Although she adopted English fashions, she continued to prefer the cuisine of her native Portugal - including tea. Soon her taste for tea had caused a fad at the royal court. This then spread to aristocratic circles and then to the wealthier classes. In 1663 the poet and politician Edmund Waller wrote a poem in honour of the queen for her birthday: Venus her Myrtle, Phoebus has his bays; Tea both excels, which she vouchsafes to praise. The best of Queens, the best of herbs, we owe To that bold nation which the way did show To the fair region where the sun doth rise, Whose rich productions we so justly prize.

The Muse's friend, tea does our fancy aid, Regress those vapours which the head invade, And keep the palace of the soul serene, Fit on her birthday to salute the Queen. Charles II and foundations for the British tea trade As well as being important to the growth of tea's popularity in Britain, the reign of Charles II was also crucial in laying the foundations for the growth of the British tea trade (and of British trade in the east generally). The East India Company , the commercial company that enjoyed a monopoly on trade with the 'Indies' (that is, lands east of Africa and west of South America) was highly favoured by Charles II. This was not wholly surprising, since the Company had showered him with gifts upon his restoration to the throne. Charles confirmed its monopoly, and also extended it to give the Company unprecedented powers to occupy by military force places with which they wished to trade (so long as the people there were not Christians). Further, another gift to Charles II in Catherine's dowry was Bombay in India (now called Mumbai). This valuable port was made over to the East India Company, for an annual rent of £10 in gold.

In time it became the Company's Far East trading headquarters and was to prove important to the tea trade. It is certainly fitting that when in 1664 the Company opened its first trading point in Macau, the merchants sent a silver case of tea and cinnamon oil as a gift to Charles II and Queen Catherine. Catherine's dowry was Bombay in India (now called Mumbai) The marriage of Queen Catherine and Charles II in fact was not an altogether happy union. They had no children together, a source of great heartache for them both, and made worse for Catherine by the fact that Charles had several illegitimate children from a series of mistresses. Further, Catherine was a Roman Catholic, which occasionally made her a victim of popular anti-Catholic feeling. Although she remained in England for some years after her husband's death in 1685, she eventually retired to Portugal, where she died in 1705. But while though Catherine's experience as queen of England may not have been an entirely successful or happy one in many ways, it is this young foreign princess whom we have to thank for the development of the British taste for tea.

Bibliography Caetano Beirao, As Negociacoes para o casamento da Infanta D. Catarina com Carlos II da Inglaterra (Lisbon, 1942). The Diary of Samuel Pepys, transcribed and edited by R. Latham and W. Matthews (London: G.Bell and Sons Ltd., 11 volumes 1970-1983). Denys Forrest, Tea for the British (London, 1973). Lady Antonia Fraser, King Charles II (London, 1979). John Miller, Charles II (London, 1991). Roy Moxham, Tea, Addiction, Exploitation and Empire (London, 2003). Edmund Waller, The Poetical Works of Edmund Waller (London, 1792). Image credits:

Question: Catherine, wife of King Charles II of England, was a princess from which Portuguese Royal House?
Answer: BRAGANZA